We are headed for an enormous IT shortage. One glance at even the most standard job sites shows that developers are in high demand. The term “developer” alone, gives 40 pages of results on Monster.com for example. Usually, we focus on how this is bad for business. Today, I want to make it more personal: salary increase aside, this trend is bad for developers.

Pressure

IT departments are under pressure. The demand for (custom made) software keeps increasing and universities are not delivering developers fast enough for an already overheated job market. In addition, even though this is stating the obvious, developers that come straight from university might be educated but are also gravely under experienced.

This means that when a company does succeed in finding a young new hire, the rest of the team has to deal with the burden of adding experience to the newbie.

The dreadful backlog

Every department has to prioritize their activities. Sales calls hot prospects first and customer service serves the most important client before the others. By doing this, they work efficiently.

Developers want to do the same; however, their to-do list keeps growing and growing. This comes to a point that they can’t even finish the high priorities on their backlog. Their boss is disappointed and the colleagues that put in the request in the first place, are shifting from impatient to angry.

The frustrating part is that developers are spending their valuable time on things that they don’t get excited about. Adding a column to a table, changing a certain report, all those things need to be done but don’t challenge skilled developers.

No-code is the answer

This is where it gets interesting. There is a way that will keep all parties satisfied and that utilizes the competences of employees in a more fitting matter: no-code platforms. With no-code platforms, business users can create and alter software themselves, without coding. Business users already know the process as well as the desired changes. Using a no-code platform, they don’t have to explain these to a coder, they can simply make the change themselves.

A common misconception is that no-code platforms threaten developers. In actuality, no-code platforms make developers’ lives easier. When business people can make (part of) their own software, developers have much more time to focus on the core projects. The projects that require in depth coding knowledge, only a developer can provide.

This means developers can innovate, design in a sustainable way, educate new employees and keep up with the demand from within the organization. When developers embrace no-code platforms, everybody benefits. Especially developers.